Want to build my own equipment.


Good Afternoon,

I have been crazy like most of you about music for a long time, love all aspects of it! Love audio equipment, and I like to build and engineer things as well. I want to get into building an amp or amps and a pre-amp that will out play my classe ca 101's running in a mono format and my 47.5 pre-amplifier. I would like to get better immaging a larger soundstage, and rediculous power. How does one do this? Does any one have any experienc in building these components, where should I start, how expensive is this to do? And am I crazy for even attempting such an ordeal. Any advice is greatly appreciated!!!!
keith_316
Check the net, Check the net, and once again check the net.

If you want to build amps, check out barns and nobel's online service.
I got some very good amplifier construction manuals from there, cant remember the name off the top of my dome tho.

Just go there and look for books on loudspeakers or amps, there are plenty that will give you some excellent knowledge.

It doesent really look difficult either.

Custom metal cases?
Once again i would just search the net. Look for any type of Metal Fabricators. Certain you will find something that will suit yer needs.
As far as "High end" goes, im not sure metal workers will understand what you mean by high end, but if you tell them what you want im sure they can fab it for ya, and im sure they can make it every bit as good as say, a jeff rowland amp chassis
No problem, just have a lot of money laying around and you'll probably do just fine......It will likely cost 5-20 limes as much and take five times as long as you anticipate it will take and cost is the only problem.....If you are really tight then you will likely break even in a few years as set-up costs and layout/electrical design are expensive.....

Good Luck!

Bob Crump
CTC Builders
Look at tubes4audio.com or diytubes.com Both have kits and are a good starting place. I love my st-50 and st-80, which are quite musical and competitive with the big name amps I've had. Roy at tubes4audio can have a very nice top plate fabricated. It actually looks better than the photos on the website. A poplar or walnut box from welbornelabs.com makes for a professional, nice looking tube amp. Bottlehead.com for intro to preamps and single-ended amp. Good luck.
Sounds like you have the talent, skill and inspiration. Can't tell if you have the technical background / education. If you have that, then all you need is time, money and test equipment. Quality reference units would be a help too.

If you have never actually built a piece of equipment before, I highly recommend you start with kits, as others have said. You may even find that they give you all the satisfaction you are looking for.

Here's another source :

Bottlehead